The Collagen Paradox: Why Collagen Won't Rebuild Your Collagen by Eating It

Americans spend a crazy amount of money buying collagen supplements as their hope to obtain more youthful, bright skin. Collagen supplements are flying off the shelves, fueled by promises of more youthful-looking skin, healthy joints, and luscious hair. But here's the hidden truth that most people are not aware of: when you swallow that collagen peptide powder or gummy, your body immediately disintegrates it into small little pieces that no longer resemble collagen molecules at all. The question that has brought both consumers and scientists to a state of confusion is simple but huge: if your body degrades the collagen you ingest, how in the world could it possibly rebuild your own collagen from it?

This blog examines what collagen supplements are doing from the moment they enter your mouth all the way to how they might influence your tissues and why the relationship between taking and making collagen is far more complicated than the industry makes you think.

What Does Happen to Collagen When You Eat It

Collagen is a protein, and like all proteins you consume, it possesses an unavoidable fate → digestion. Your digestive system is designed especially to break proteins down into their smallest components called amino acids. It begins in your stomach, where hydrochloric acid and an enzyme called pepsin start cutting the long collagen molecules into short chains. The process is performed in your little intestine, where proteases, a type of enzymes, finish the job and cut collagen down to individual amino acids and little chains of two or three amino acids joined together.

Proteins must be broken down into amino acids before they can be absorbed and used by the body. Your lining in your gut can't digest large molecules of protein like whole collagen. It's simply too bulky to squeeze through the intestinal wall into your blood system. It's like trying to push a rope through a screen door: it has to be chopped up small enough to fit through the holes.

By the time collagen makes it into your bloodstream, it is not collagen anymore. Instead, you have a group of amino acids that are chemically indistinguishable from amino acids from any other protein food, whether chicken, beans, or eggs. Your body can't tell an amino acid that was sourced from a $50 jar of marine collagen from an amino acid that was sourced from a $3 can of tuna.

The Biology of Making Your Own Collagen

That's where it gets interesting. Your body makes collagen in specialized cells called fibroblasts, which are located in your skin, bones, tendons, and connective tissue throughout your body. These cells gather individual amino acids from your bloodstream and assemble them together into new molecules of collagen using your genetic plan. It requires specific amino acids like glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, but it requires vitamin C, copper, zinc, and other nutrients too in order to function well.

However, the decline in collagen production is not usually the result of a deficiency in amino acids. Most people eating a varied diet with a good supply of protein take in far more than adequate amounts of amino acids required for collagen formation. Instead, collagen formation slows down with age because fibroblast cells become less effective, genetic signals change, and chronic inflammation interferes with the synthesis process.

This is the issue: taking more collagen doesn't necessarily solve the problem because the problem isn't one of not having enough raw material. It's like having all of the bricks that you would employ to construct a building but having workers who are tired, distracted, or employing faulty blueprints. Additional bricks won't cause them to work faster or better.

What the Research Actually Shows

In spite of rational challenges, some studies have shown that collagen supplements can still be beneficial. Clinical trials have suggested skin elasticity, hydration, and wrinkle depth improvement among patients receiving collagen supplements when compared to placebo groups.

But how it does so is not well understood and remains a topic of debate. Some researchers indicate that when collagen is broken down into small peptides (not amino acids), certain of the peptides can act as signaling molecules. The theory is that such peptides can travel in the blood to fibroblast cells and act on them to produce more collagen, effectively sending a message that "we need more collagen here."

They are skeptical. The studies that provide benefits have small numbers of participants, short durations (typically 8 to 12 weeks), and are frequently funded by companies that market collagen products. A systematic review would need to be undertaken in order to come to firmer conclusions, and the quality of existing evidence has been compared to being best described as moderate.

‍

Three Varies on Collagen Supplements

Mainstream Medical Consensus

The standard medical view acknowledges collagen's importance in the body but is reluctant about supplementation. Cleveland Clinic teaches us that "collagen is the most abundant protein in your body" and serves critical structural roles in skin, bones, tendons, and ligaments. They specify that collagen production requires adequate protein, vitamin C, zinc, and copper through your diet.

But medical sources stress that consuming a balanced diet with adequate protein from multiple sources, along with vitamin C and mineral-rich foods, probably supplies all your body needs to produce collagen. WebMD recommends that instead of concentrating just on collagen supplements, individuals pay attention to the overall dietary regimen: " Consider eating foods high in vitamin C. Eating foods rich in this nutrient encourages your body to make its own collagen and keep you healthy and strong."

The general medical community views collagen supplements as potentially innocuous but probably not necessary for most people. They remain focused on whole food eating, prevention of sun damage (which destroys collagen), abstaining from smoking, and other lifestyle factors that affect collagen health.

Alternative and Holistic View

The natural health community welcomes supplementation with collagen as well, all too frequently using it as a way of working with rather than against the body's natural processes. Holistic practitioners most commonly recommend collagen from grass-fed, pasture-raised, or wild-harvested animals, prioritizing quality and source over quantity.

This regimen has a tendency to combine collagen supplementation with other routines thought to aid collagen formation: consumption of bone broth daily, inclusion of vitamin C-rich foods like berries and citrus fruits as a mainstay of the diet, using adaptogens to control stress (which they believe destroys collagen), and using topical treatments that contain vitamin C and retinol. The holistic regimen sees collagen supplementation within a larger context of wellness.

Most individuals in this category report subjective improvement in skin texture, joint comfort, and nail health following ingestion of collagen over a period of several months. They generally acknowledge that science doesn't know yet how ingested collagen is helpful but object to the idea that absence of complete explanation denies existence of their own observation.

Other practitioners assert that the way you digest does matter, with them favoring hydrolyzed collagen (broken into small pieces before you eat it) as it is more easily digested, but this digestion argument is not well-liked by digestion physiology because all proteins are degraded anyway.

Influencer and Social Media Perspective

On social media sites like Instagram and TikTok, collagen supplements are marketed as miracle cures for aging, with before-and-after photos and enthusiastic testimonials. Influencers in the beauty and wellness sphere regularly share photos of their morning collagen ritual, mixing powders in coffee or smoothies, and crediting collagen their glowy complexion, luscious hair, and strong nails.

Typical wellness influencer sayings are things like "I've been taking collagen for three months and my skin has never looked more beautiful!" or "Collagen totally transformed my joint pain." They sound believable and real and are being said by people who seem to be authentic and whose appearance often correlates with what they are saying.

But these stories rarely give credit to confounding variables. Influencers promoting collagen typically simultaneously maintain rigorous skincare routines, get expert treatments, follow carefully designed diets, work out regularly, use filters and expert lighting, and may have access to other interventions they do not disclose. It becomes impossible to determine which variable (if any) is creating their results.

Moreover, the majority of influencers also have financial relationships with collagen businesses in the way of sponsorships, affiliate programs, or their own product lines, which by default involve a conflict of interest. Although this may not invalidate their experiences, it implies that their endorsements are to be viewed properly skeptically.

‍

What is Collagen Supplements' LyfeIQ?

Collagen supplements score a 4 out of 10 on the LyfeIQ scale for credibility and applicability, as while some studies suggest potential benefits for skin, joints, and hair, the mechanism of action remains unclear given that ingested collagen is broken down into amino acids rather than being directly incorporated into tissues, and much of the current evidence is limited by small sample sizes, short durations, and industry funding, warranting a cautious and skeptical approach until more robust research emerges.

‍

Connecting the Insights

These three positions are not so much mutually contradictory as mutually complementary; they all lay stress on different sides of the story. The medical approach demands evidence and mechanism, being cautious until strong proof presented and insdisputable. The holistic position puts individual experience high and adopts a comprehensive view of health that is not exclusive to but includes supplementation. The influencer position provides available, anecdotal accounts but sometimes in the absence of science and is subject to commercial interests.

The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. Collagen supplements are not likely the magic bullet promised by advertising, but they won't probably be completely useless either. Some will experience small benefits through pathways we don't yet know enough about, and others spend money on pricey supplements that provide them with nothing they wouldn't otherwise receive from an unbalanced diet supplemented by protein, fruits, and vegetables.

What is guaranteed is that your body doesn't and can't use ingested collagen as whole replacement units. You don't ingest collagen and have it reappear intact in your joints or skin. Your body completely breaks it down and then decides what to do with the pieces based on its own capability and agenda. Whether or not they trigger good signals or simply get recycled into other proteins within your body is still an open issue that requires tighter studies to once and for all determine for sure.

‍

References:

Begum, Jabeen. “Health Benefits of Collagen.” WebMD, 7 Dec. 2023, www.webmd.com/diet/collagen-health-benefits.

Cleveland Clinic. “Collagen: What It Is, Types, Function & Benefits.” Cleveland Clinic, 2022, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23089-collagen.

“Do Collagen Peptides Actually Work?” Cleveland Clinic, 23 Dec. 2021, health.clevelandclinic.org/what-do-collagen-peptides-do.

Goins, Sonya. “Mayo Clinic Minute: Can Collagen Supplements Help with Aging? - Mayo Clinic News Network.” Mayo Clinic News Network, 13 Mar. 2024, newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/ready-3-13-mayo-clinic-minute-can-collagen-supplements-help-with-aging/.

“Should You Add Collagen Supplements to Your Skin Care Routine?” Cleveland Clinic, 6 Dec. 2023, health.clevelandclinic.org/collagen-supplements.

Smith, Abby. “Mayo Clinic Q & A: Does Collagen Really Help Fight Wrinkles and Aging?” Mayo Clinic News Network, 3 May 2024, newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-a-does-collagen-really-help-fight-wrinkles-and-aging/.

‍